Monee Trustees Push to Rezone Commercial Properties to Alleviate Red Tape for Homeowners

Monee Village Board of Trustees Meeting | February 25, 2026

Article Summary: Trustee Heidi Gonzalez voiced frustration over the village’s zoning map, arguing that residential homes stuck in commercial zones face unnecessary delays when attempting to secure loans or insurance.

Zoning Formality Concerns Key Points:

• The board approved a special use permit (Ordinance #2131) for Enhanced Life Homes, LLC, at 25830 South Chestnut Road to maintain a multi-family residential use in a C-1 commercial zone.

• Trustee Heidi Gonzalez criticized the process, noting residents sometimes wait months to clear zoning hurdles just to satisfy mortgage lenders and insurance companies.

• Gonzalez volunteered to help the zoning board formally rezone these specific residential pockets to prevent future bureaucratic delays.

MONEE, Ill. — Following the approval of a routine special use permit, members of the Monee Village Board of Trustees on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, expressed a desire to formally update the village’s zoning map to protect homeowners from bureaucratic red tape.

The discussion arose during the unanimous approval of Ordinance #2131, which granted a special use permit to Enhanced Life Homes, LLC. The permit allows the property at 25830 South Chestnut Road to maintain a multi-family residential use, despite being located within a C-1 commercial zoning district.

Village Attorney Lawrence R. Gryczewski noted that the Zoning Board of Appeals had already reviewed the request on February 18 and recommended it unanimously. However, Trustee Heidi Gonzalez took the opportunity to highlight how the village’s outdated zoning lines actively harm property owners.

Gonzalez explained that when residents buy or attempt to insure homes located in these commercially zoned blocks—which she noted extend roughly two blocks in either direction from the railroad tracks—they are frequently flagged by financial institutions.

“They have to go before the P&Z board and then they have to come to us. And it takes sometimes a month, month and a half or more to get that,” Gonzalez said. “They’re waiting for either their insurance or their bank to say, ‘Hey, we just need to know if it burns down or something happens, we can rebuild that house.'”

Gonzalez pointed to a recent case involving a neighboring property where the buyers faced a two-month delay and nearly lost their loan due to the zoning mismatch.

The applicant for the Chestnut Road property, who was in attendance, agreed with the board’s assessment. He noted that he was only able to bypass the typical lender delays because he was utilizing a private lender.

“Most lenders absolutely[would stop the process], because the proper way of doing this whole thing, forget the variance, forget the special use,[is to] rezone the property,” the applicant told the board. “If the lender sees special use or a variance, they’re going to say, ‘Hey, time out. What’s going on?’ They don’t want to be involved.”

Calling the current system a “ridiculous formality” and a waste of time for residents, Gonzalez formally volunteered to work with the village planner to identify these residential homes in commercial zones and initiate a blanket rezoning process.